All praise due to the guitar gods, who have seen fit to bless our city with some of the finest six-string slingers on Earth this week! Between Bombino last night and Dick Dale tonight, all we need is Alvin Lee to make an unexpected appearance and our holy trinity of ax-wielding heroes will be complete. But we’re not holding our breath for Lee — we’d end up dead. And if we ended up dead, then we’d miss the King of Surf Guitar, and Lord knows that would be the dumbest thing in our long prestigious history of doing dumb things. If you’ve never seen the septuagenarian patriarch of all things reverb ... just what exactly is wrong with you? Even if Quentin Tarantino hadn’t canonized “Miserlou” in
Pulp Fiction — it’s the score to one of 20th century cinema’s most defining moments — Dale would still be one of the greatest that ever lived, developing techniques and equipment that are still used today. You can thank him for that 100-watt amp when you see him.
— Sean L. Maloney